JPMorgan Data Fees And Why Europe’s PSD2 Got It Right

When Bloomberg and Reuters reported that JPMorgan Chase plans to charge fintech companies for access to customer bank-account data, it triggered a wave of debate about data ownership, competition, and the future of financial innovation in the United States.

At the heart of this fight is a surprisingly simple question:

Who really owns financial data - the customer or the bank?

Legally, under the U.S. consumer financial data-rights framework (Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act), the data belongs to the customer. Customers are supposed to have the right to access their financial information and share it with whatever app or service they choose.

But JPMorgan’s new pricing model bluntly shows that even if customers own their data, banks still control the delivery. And that control is what JPMorgan is now monetizing.

The Real Reason Banks Hate Screen Scraping

For years, fintechs like Plaid, Cash App, and budgeting apps accessed bank data via screen scraping, where a customer provides login credentials and a third party tool logs in on their behalf. Banks claim scraping is insecure, unreliable, and outdated. But real reason of disliking it so much is simple

Banks cannot charge for screen scraping.

When a fintech logs in as the customer:

• bank cannot meter the data transfer
• annot charge per API call
• cannot track what app is using the data
• and cannot throttle or restrict use for commercial gain

So the push to eliminate screen scraping and force everyone onto bank controlled APIs is about reclaiming control and creating a revenue stream.

JPMorgan is now taking the next step: charging fintechs for each access to customer data, even though that data belongs to the customer.

JPMorgan’s Approach Is Being Criticized because:

1. Customers own their data. Charging for access to something the bank does not own feels exploitative, especially when customers authorize the transfer.
2. Large banks like JPMorgan can raise barriers for smaller fintechs, forcing them to pay high infrastructure fees simply to operate basic services.
3. Fintech apps that depend on free or low-cost access (budget trackers, payment apps, financial planning tools) may suddenly face unsustainable costs.
4. Banks claim fintech API traffic is expensive, yet this traffic exists because customers are trying to manage their money.

Charging for this creates a twisted incentive: the more customers rely on innovative financial tools, the more banks get paid for simply standing in the way.

Most importantly, this system makes customers pay indirectly - either through worse fintech pricing, fewer available services, or diminished competition.

Europe PSD2 Model

While the U.S. has been drifting toward a bank controlled, fee based, closed ecosystem, Europe solved this problem long ago with a drastically different approach.

Under PSD2 (Revised Payment Services Directive):

1. Banks must give customers free access to their data
   No fees or per-call charges - banks are legally prohibited from charging fintechs for API access to customer data.
2. APIs are mandatory and standardized
   Banks must offer reliable, secure, standardized, high-availability data-access APIs.
3. Screen scraping was banned, but only because free APIs replaced it The EU eliminated screen scraping after guaranteeing free, open access for fintechs.
   
4. Consumers’ rights override institutional control
   In Europe data belongs to the customer, access is guaranteed by law, so banks cannot interfere, slow down, or financially burden fintechs and fees cannot be used to manipulate competition

Result - Europe became the world’s open-banking leader, producing Revolut, Wise, Klarna, Monzo, N26, Tink, and a massive fintech ecosystem thriving on free flow of customer authorized data.

Why JPMorgan Is Doing This Now

U.S. has no fully implemented national open-banking law. The rules are vague, incomplete, and filled with loopholes that banks can exploit. Recent regulatory signals suggest a more bank friendly environment. JPMorgan is taking advantage before stricter rules return. Also fintechs increasingly threaten banks’ dominance in: payments, budgeting, lending and investing.

Charging for data access weakens these competitors and reasserts banking power.

Customers Can Fight Back

Even now, customers still have the legal right to provide their login credentials to any fintech, authorize screen scraping and demand access to their own financial data, also file complaints with regulators or even switch banks that block or charge for data access.

Banks cannot stop customers from sharing their credentials, even if they hate screen scraping. This remains one of the few leverage points consumers have left. But the long-term solution cannot rely on customers fighting banks one by one.

The U.S. Needs Its Own PSD2!

Bottom Line

JPMorgan’s plan to charge fintechs for customer data speaks of a broken, bank dominated system where the customer’s rights are secondary to institutional control.

Europe faced this same problem years ago and instead of letting banks tax data access, Europe chose innovation, customer rights, and competition.

The U.S. now has the same choice.

And if it fails to correct course, JPMorgan’s move may become the blueprint for a future where customer data is owned by customers only in theory, and owned by banks in practice.